Suction

There's still gold in them thar rivers, and adventurers still cherish dreams of wealth. These days, though, sifting for gold is more a form of recreation than a business, and the tin pans have mostly been replaced by motorized machines called suction dredges. And the competing claims aren't over who has prospecting rights, but whether this form of mechanized gold hunting is causing irreparable harm to rivers in Northern California and the fish that swim in them. In 2011, Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation that imposed a moratorium on the practice until 2016, by which time the state Department of Fish and Game was to adopt regulations that eliminated the potential for significant environmental damage and that set permit fees high enough to cover the state's costs.

If you're searching for ways to keep your cellphone, GPS device and sometimes tablet computer handy on car trips without having to drill holes, sacrifice cup holders or rely on suction cups, Satechi's new ST-TP01 Car Holder Mount gets a different grip. The adjustable cradle grabs devices from 5 inches to 10 inches long -- which means most smartphones, readers, tablets and GPS units, which can be rotated to horizontal or vertical mode. The cradle swivels out from a weighted suction/pressure gripper that locks onto the top of the dashboard, rather than the window, so the electronic device hogs neither the view nor the cup holder.

If you're searching for ways to keep your cellphone, GPS device and sometimes tablet computer handy on car trips without having to drill holes, sacrifice cup holders or rely on suction cups, Satechi's new ST-TP01 Car Holder Mount gets a different grip. The adjustable cradle grabs devices from 5 inches to 10 inches long -- which means most smartphones, readers, tablets and GPS units, which can be rotated to horizontal or vertical mode. The cradle swivels out from a weighted suction/pressure gripper that locks onto the top of the dashboard, rather than the window, so the electronic device hogs neither the view nor the cup holder.

Recreational gold mining using suction dredges along Northern California's Klamath River must be reviewed by federal wildlife officials if threatened coho salmon might be harmed, a federal appeals court ruled Friday. The 7-4 ruling by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals found that the U.S. Forest Service violated federal endangered species protections by approving the mining practice along the Klamath without consulting wildlife officials. The Klamath starts in southeastern Oregon and empties into the Pacific Ocean about 40 miles south of the California-Oregon border.

In 1961 (according to the California Highway Patrol), California Vehicle Code 26708A was placed on the books, prohibiting drivers from hanging ornaments of any kind on the inside rear-view mirror, as a measure of safety of vision not only for the subject driver but for the driver in front of and in back of the subject driver. What ever happened to that vehicle code? So far as I can see, it is not being enforced! Not only do I see baubles and beads and baby shoes hanging from the shaft of the inside rear-view mirror, but I have even seen a Garfield stuffed cat with suction cups stuck on the inside of the front windshield!

I am writing in the hope that you can better publicize a potentially lethal problem for pool owners. We have a pool and hot tub built in the early 1970s. Recently my 6-year-old son was playing in the hot tub. He was apparently swimming underwater along the bottom. The grill covering the suction port had come off and he was sucked to the bottom. My wife jumped into the tub and tried to pull him up, but he was stuck so tightly that she was unsuccessful. She then got out and turned the pump off. Even so, she had to give several more vigorous tugs before she was able to free him and bring him to the surface.

Call it one of the world's most natural pairings -- sports and psychology. November's GQ magazine covered the six most obvious subcategories: The Space Cadet, The Clutch Performer, The Prima Donna, The Head Case, The Clubhouse Cancer and The Psycho. GQ's list of "known specimens" of The Clubhouse Cancer was limited to just five: baseball players Carl Everett, A.J. Pierzynski and Raul Mondesi; football's Randy Moss; and basketball's Bonzi Wells.

Regarding "The Person Inside the Body" (Other Views, July 14), Patricia Williams really hit home. I have just watched my friend go through a horrible death after long suffering. She knew everything that happened to her right up to the last. We who kept the vigil saw her slip into sleep after 10 days of pain and terrible fear, decided it would be OK to grab a snack together for a change and asked the nurses to call us in the cafeteria if anything happened and to please leave her alone when she was finally resting.

"Use it or lose it" goes for most things in life, including balance. Athletes use it to stick a landing, dodge a would-be tackler and score 9s on "Dancing With the Stars." When de-conditioned folks lose it, they feel shaky on a bike, walk stiffly and slowly, and risk falling and breaking their hip while vacuuming the floor. Fortunately, balance comes back when you work the quick-reaction core muscles that coordinate a body in motion, traditionally with the assistance of stability products such as wobble boards and Swiss balls.

A traveler's laundry problems give a whole new meaning to the words soap opera. They range from triumph--washing three pairs of socks in a liter of bottled water--to tragedy--the bra that sparked an international incident. Forget all this fuss about laundering Contra funds or drug millions. That's a breeze compared to the laundering problems a traveler encounters on an overseas jaunt.

There's still gold in them thar rivers, and adventurers still cherish dreams of wealth. These days, though, sifting for gold is more a form of recreation than a business, and the tin pans have mostly been replaced by motorized machines called suction dredges. And the competing claims aren't over who has prospecting rights, but whether this form of mechanized gold hunting is causing irreparable harm to rivers in Northern California and the fish that swim in them. In 2011, Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation that imposed a moratorium on the practice until 2016, by which time the state Department of Fish and Game was to adopt regulations that eliminated the potential for significant environmental damage and that set permit fees high enough to cover the state's costs.

BP's success at drawing oil from a leaking pipe has proved that official estimates of the size of the Gulf of Mexico spill have been too low. The company effectively admitted as much Thursday when it said that a tube inserted into the broken pipe connected to its blown-out well is collecting as much as 5,000 barrels of oil and 15 million cubic feet of gas a day, even as a live video feed shows large volumes continuing to billow into gulf waters....

Engineers hoping to contain oil gushing from the mangled pipe beneath the Gulf of Mexico appeared to make important headway Sunday, as robot submarines jammed a suction tube into the pipe in an attempt to coax the oil to a ship on the surface. Officials for the oil company BP said they could not estimate how much oil and gas was flowing through the tube, nor what percentage of the leak was being contained, until Monday or Tuesday at earliest. They originally said the plan might suck up as much as 75% of the leaking oil. Without the number of gallons retrieved, it remained unclear Sunday whether the nation's brightest minds would be capable of solving an engineering conundrum that is spewing 210,000 gallons of oil a day, and perhaps more, into the gulf waters from a canyon 5,000 feet below the sea. Although relatively little oil has washed up on land so far, scientists are growing worried about the effects of massive plumes of oil hovering below the surface in areas teeming with life, including plankton, turtles, dolphins and whales.

BP's efforts to slow the flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico appeared to be working Monday as a mile-long suction tube captured about a fifth of the crude spouting from a broken pipe and transferred it to a waiting ship, company officials said. The suction operation is not stopping the flow of oil, but it is the first major success BP has achieved after weeks of failure in trying to check the oil gusher rising from nearly a mile below the gulf surface. "We're very encouraged by this," BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles said Monday.

"Use it or lose it" goes for most things in life, including balance. Athletes use it to stick a landing, dodge a would-be tackler and score 9s on "Dancing With the Stars." When de-conditioned folks lose it, they feel shaky on a bike, walk stiffly and slowly, and risk falling and breaking their hip while vacuuming the floor. Fortunately, balance comes back when you work the quick-reaction core muscles that coordinate a body in motion, traditionally with the assistance of stability products such as wobble boards and Swiss balls.

So-called body-sculpting centers have become a sensation in the San Gabriel Valley, attracting Chinese American women eager to try an innovative approach to losing weight. No diets for them, thanks. They'd rather fight the war on flab with equipment that looks as if it came from a galaxy far, far away. The body-sculpting treatments, which are popular in Hong Kong and other East Asian cities and recall methods used in the U.S.

The Emergency Gas Shutoff Tool is so clever, it's hard to imagine no one thought of it before. It's a heavy aluminum bar with a slot that fits over the gas meter's shut-off valve so you can turn off the gas in a hurry if you need to. The 11 1/2-inch long tool has good leverage for turning, and is stamped with the proper position of the valve--vertical when the gas is on; horizontal when off. It also has a small hole on one end, making it easy...

Face lifts. Nose jobs. Thigh reductions. Breast enlargements. Fat suctions. The idea is to look terrific, but for a time, the results of cosmetic surgery are not a pretty sight. Ugly swelling, discoloration, dangling tubes, bruises and skin-tight bandages are the most immediate results. Drinking through a straw or keeping the head still at night so as not to pop a stitch those first few days are standard.

Swept up in spring cleaning? Two new vacuums have landed in stores, just in time. First up is the Dyson Slim, a compact model that weighs about 15% to 20% less than the company's other uprights. Also making some noise -- and a lot of it -- is Shark's loud new Infinity line, which purports to provide the same kind of never-loses-suction technology as Dyson at a fraction of the price. How did each fare in test drives? Let's just say the search for the perfect vacuum continues.

Call it one of the world's most natural pairings -- sports and psychology. November's GQ magazine covered the six most obvious subcategories: The Space Cadet, The Clutch Performer, The Prima Donna, The Head Case, The Clubhouse Cancer and The Psycho. GQ's list of "known specimens" of The Clubhouse Cancer was limited to just five: baseball players Carl Everett, A.J. Pierzynski and Raul Mondesi; football's Randy Moss; and basketball's Bonzi Wells.